Hong Kong, Sep 9: India’s top men’s doubles pair Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty began their Hong Kong Open Super 500 campaign on a winning note on Tuesday, while Kiran George fought his way through qualifying to make the main draw of men’s singles competition here.
Satwik and Chirag, who recently bagged their second bronze medal at the World Championships in Paris, overcame Taiwan’s Chiu Hsiang Chieh and Wang Chi-Lin 21-13, 18-21, 21-10 in their opening round.
The former world No.1 combination looked sharp in the opener, allowed their rivals to force a decider, but reasserted control in the third with their trademark net domination and powerful smashes.
The eighth seeds will meet the winners of the match between Japan’s Kenya Mitsuhashi/Hiroki Okamura and Thailand’s Peeratchai Sukphun/Pakkapon Teeraratsakul.
In men’s singles, Kiran earned his main draw berth with back-to-back wins in the qualifiers.
He first dispatched Malaysia’s Cheam June Wei 21-14, 21-13 and then beat compatriot S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian 21-18, 21-14.
Sankar had earlier outplayed England’s Wang Yue Hang 21-10, 21-5 in the opening round.
World No. 38 Kiran will face Singapore’s Jia Heng Jason Teh next.
Tharun Mannepalli produced the biggest shock of the day, sending former world No.1 Kidambi Srikanth packing 28-26, 21-13 in the first round of qualifying.
The 20-year-old, however, could not sustain the momentum and went down 21-23, 13-21, 18-21 to Malaysia’s fourth seed Justin Hoh in his next match. (PTI)
